Introducing Miyagi!

Why hello my little blog. I'm no longer going to neglect you. Sorry about the past few months... let's just say I've missed you and well, I'm back.

I'll try to catch you up on everything that's been going on these past few months... but first you need to hear about this one day. 

It will go down in history as the day Joel introduced me to his new favorite travel companion, Mr. Miyagi.

Together, the three of us trekked down to Laguna Beach via PCH to stop for some amazing all vegan food at this place called The Stand.

The menu was overwhelmingly delicious looking... so much so that it got to the point where deciding what to eat became somewhat stressful. Safe to say we were happy with our decisions in the end!

Then we headed down to Balboa Island for some classic dessert. 

Because we all know... when in Balboa, you do as the Balboans do...

and go big with a chocolate covered everything banana!  

(Arrested Development, anyone?)

And to top off the afternoon, we took the Balboa Auto Ferry onto the island.

And then we headed home! 

But wait.... I forgot to mention the best part.

Joel's friend Miyagi? 

Yeah... he's a mother cluckin' motorcycle. 

I can honestly admit, that I have never felt so d'aw gawn bad ass in my life.

Watching motorcycles zip by on the freeway has a whole new meaning after this experience, I just absolutely fell in love with it. Thanks for the wonderful memory brother, I love you!

Hawaiian Summer Chronicles Part Four: You just had to be there.

These clips make me crack up. 

I can tell they don't come close to capturing how beautiful and hilarious this car ride home was, but I love them all the same. 

In case you haven't met, these are my mom and sisters. 

I'm related to them, and I'm proud.

PS. Ollie is in here too, but he's just shy!

coconut banana bread with lime glaze

Kamehameha gradually emptied out: first Lauren, then the boys... then the my adorable british family...  my dad, then my brother, and soon it was just the women of our family...

Breakfast changed from big scrambles of eggs and veggies on bagels to greek yogurt and blueberries. Clean bathroom towels lasted much longer on their shelves and our many beach towels became easier to come by. Dinner reverted back to mellow simple meals like nori wraps and salads. The evening news was turned on with after dinner tea for the first time in weeks. I even got to know our local bird friends, the admirals, a bit better and played a key role in feeding their adorable fluffy babies every morning. In general, things just quieted down.

A few days after everyone left, we noticed that our bananas had been overlooked and were sitting rather lonely in our fruit bowl, looking pretty unappetizing.  Which of course made us really excited, because we all know when life gives you rotten bananas, you make banana bread.

One of my favorite ways to spend free time is to bake, but my current living situation doesn't have a very friendly kitchen so recently I've had some hilariously bad baking experiences. Lets just say I really was afraid to embark on another baking mission. But I adore my mom's kitchen and how she organizes it and the counter space it has, so while my little sister was asleep and my mom was busy doing mom things, I cracked open our cupboards and began.

My mom found this recipe through a blog! I'm so proud. It can be found here.

It asks for yogurt, which always is good sign for a baking recipes in my opinion. But we're greek yogurt people and didn't have any regular on hand, so I went with it. 

I also used shredded coconut because I overlooked our supply of flaked coconut until the bread came out of the oven... which turned out okay because I just piled more of it on top. Neither type was sweetened like the recipe calls for, but I don't like really sweet bread anyways. (Yes, my mom has a supply of coconut... it's Hawaii.)

The recipe was pretty basic. You know if I don't mess it up, it's pretty full proof.

I love mushing the bananas then swirling them into the mix, it's kind of gross but you know it's going to taste good. 

Before I found the flaked coconut I just put a handful of shredded coconut on the mix. When the bread was almost ready to take out of the oven I added shredded coconut to the top and left in for a few minutes to toast. Then I added a bit of shredded coconut in the glaze then I poored it in clumps on the top. (No such thing as coconut coconut!)

 The lime was so good with the coconut and banana that next time I'm going to double the glaze.

 

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, it was moist and sweet but not too sweet. The lime and coconut were such a great addition, I don't think I'll make banana bread any other way!